| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this advanced speaking lesson are to:
- engage in talking about prisons and prisoner rehabilitation;
- watch a video on imprisonment in the U.S.;
- review vocabulary to discuss imprisonment.
With this speaking lesson, students discuss incarceration from a critical perspective. They talk about its purposes, effects and challenges. Students watch a video about mass incarceration in the US, read about ‘the world’s most humane prison’ and share their opinions. They can also do an additional activity where they revise vocabulary to talk about incarceration (e.g. rehabilitation, deterrence, recidivism).
C2 / Proficiency45 min
60 minSpeaking ClassUnlimited Plan
This is a Speaking Class worksheet. It includes a variety of tasks that let your students practise their speaking skills. This lesson format does not focus on grammar or vocabulary. Learn more about it here.
WARM-UP AND VIDEO
Before this speaking lesson begins, students can do an optional vocabulary activity to help them participate in talking about prisons. In the task, they complete gaps using the noun form of verbs (e.g. rehabilitate – rehabilitation). As a warm-up, students then discuss the purpose and impact of incarceration. After that, they watch a video about mass incarceration in the US. First, they read the statistics the video mentions and give their opinion. Next, they watch the video and look at some perspectives on incarceration and its consequences. Students explain what they think they mean and whether they agree. Afterwards, they complete statements about the video with their opinions.
MORE DISCUSSION
In this part of the lesson, students engage in more discussion about prisons and incarceration. They read about Halden, ‘the world’s most humane prison’, a rehabilitative detention centre in Norway. They engage in talking about prisons, share their thoughts and discuss questions about prison systems and prisoner rehabilitation. Finally, they look at some opinions about crime and punishment (e.g. It should be a mandatory part of rehabilitation that prisoners find a way to give something positive back to society.) and share what they think about them.
WORKSHEETS
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Great lesson. Thanks
We’re happy you find it useful 🙂
Borrowed from “Three wise kangaroos”. 😉
Hi there! Up until now, we haven’t heard of the Three Wise Kangaroos (btw, love the name!). But I found that place and found a lesson on Halden Prison that you probably refer to. Their lesson puts more focus on the Halden Prison (videos + comprehension), while we mention it later in the lesson in a text form. I believe the two things these lessons share is that they talk about the prison system and mention Halden Prison (which obviously is interesting because of it uniqueness). It’s so broad that I don’t think it’s fair to say that we ‘borrowed’ anything because we have a lesson about prisons and it mentions Halden.
Good interesting topic. This has gone down a treat with my students, thank you!
Thanks! Great to hear that 🙂
Fascinating)))